How to Stop Doomscrolling: Small Changes for Better Days

You open your phone to check one headline. Twenty minutes later, you are still reading, feeling more tense and no better informed. If that sounds familiar, stopping doomscrolling does not have to mean ignoring the world or deleting every app. Start by putting a boundary around one scrolling session and choosing what you will do instead.

Doomscrolling usually means repeatedly consuming negative or distressing news, even when you would rather stop. It can happen on news sites, social feeds or group chats. The useful question is not “How bad is my screen time?” but “Is this helping me do what I came here to do?”

What does the research actually show?

In two experiments during the COVID-19 pandemic, brief exposure to negative pandemic news reduced positive feelings compared with no exposure. That tells us something about immediate emotional responses in a particular setting. It does not show that reading news causes clinical depression, or that every kind of phone use is harmful.

Other doomscrolling research finds links with psychological distress. Much of it is observational: people who are already anxious may seek more news, and distressing news may leave them feeling worse. Both directions can matter. There is no scientifically established number of scrolling minutes that is safe for everyone.

1. Give the session an end point

Choose one question you want answered, or one short news window. For example: “I will check the main headlines after lunch, then close the app.” A timer can provide a stopping cue. Ten minutes is a practical starting experiment, not a medical limit.

If you need updates for work, caregiving or a developing emergency, adapt the boundary to that responsibility. The goal is intentional use, not being uninformed.

2. Make the next scroll less automatic

Try one small change:

• Turn off non-essential news and social notifications.
• Move the app you open automatically off your home screen.
• Keep your phone out of reach during one meal.
• Choose a trusted news summary instead of an endless feed.

Keep messages and alerts you genuinely rely on. Adding a little friction is often more realistic than a complete ban.

3. Choose a replacement before you stop

An empty rule — “Do not scroll” — leaves you with nothing to turn to. Pick something that fits the moment: make tea, stretch, step outside, read a few pages or send a message to someone you care about.

A replacement does not need to be productive. It only needs to give you a different way to meet the need underneath the scrolling, whether that is rest, connection or reassurance.

4. Protect one part of your evening

If distressing news follows you into bed, try finishing your last check before your wind-down routine. Charge your phone somewhere you can still hear essential calls without keeping the feed beside your pillow.

Read Sleep and Mental Health: How to Spot Patterns Without Obsessing Over Scores for a gentler approach to sleep habits.

Try a one-week experiment

Choose just one boundary. Make a brief note of when you scrolled, roughly how long it lasted and how you felt afterwards. At the end of the week, ask whether the change felt useful — not whether you achieved a perfect streak.

Goodday can help you log time spent on activities and compare days. Its research-weighted score is not a measurement of your mood and cannot prove scrolling caused a change in how you feel. Your own notes and experience still matter.

When to get support

If anxiety, low mood or the urge to keep checking is interfering with daily life, speak with a qualified health professional. A news boundary can be a helpful habit, but it is not treatment.

One small step today: move one feed off your home screen and decide when you will next check it.

Sources and further reading

• Buchanan and colleagues (2021), Brief exposure to social media during the COVID-19 pandemic: Doom-scrolling has negative emotional consequences, but kindness-scrolling does not. Experimental findings concern short-term feelings in a pandemic context.
• Mental Health Foundation, Doomscrolling: tips for healthier news consumption.
• How Goodday scores a day and the science library, including the limits of research-weighted scores.

This article is general wellbeing information, not medical advice or a substitute for professional care.